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The 2021 Ignatz Award Winners are…

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2021 Ignatz Awards

During this weeked’s Small Press Expo (SPX) the winners of the 2021 Ignatz Awards were announced. The Ignatz are a celebration of outstanding achievement in comics and cartooning. The awards were presented virtually with a livestream awards ceremony.

The Ignatz Awards are a juried festival prize, the first of such in the United States comic book industry. Traditionally, the winners are determined by attendees of the in-person event. This year, as was the case in 2020, voting was open to all who register to receive a ballot.

Ignatz Awards nominees are determined by a panel of comics professionals. The 2021 Ignatz jurors were Sunmi, Nguyên Khôi Nguyễn, and Daniel Elkin.

The nominees are listed below with the winner in BOLD. Congrats to everyone.

Outstanding Artist

  • Ashanti Fortson – Leaf Lace (Hiveworks)
  • Lee Lai – Stone Fruit (Fantagraphics)
  • Arantza Peña Popo – Lavender Scare (self-published)
  • Damien Roudeau – Crude (Graphic Mundi)
  • Karl Stevens – Penny (Chronicle)

Outstanding Anthology

  • A Queer Prisoner’s Anthology IV – ed. by Casper Cendre (ABO)
  • Bystander (Kadak Collective)
  • Confined Before Covid: A Pandemic Anthology by LGBTQ Prisoners (ABO)
  • First Wave: Comics from the Early Months of China’s Outbreak – ed. by Xinmei Liu (Paradise Systems)
  • Glaeolia 2 (Glacier Bay Books)

Outstanding Collection

  • Sami Alwani – The Pleasure of the Text (Conundrum Press)
  • Ancco – Nineteen (Drawn & Quarterly)
  • Abby Howard – The Crossroads at Midnight (Iron Circus Comics)
  • Tess Scilipoti – Do You Think I Look Like a Girl? (self-published)
  • Kuniko Tsurita – The Sky is Blue with a Single Cloud (Drawn & Quarterly)

Outstanding Comic

  • EA Bethea – Francis Bacon (Domino Books)
  • Ashanti Fortson – Leaf Lace (Hiveworks)
  • Maddi Gonzalez – Rhapsodie (Fantagraphics)
  • Adam Szym – A Cordial Invitation (Fantagraphics)
  • Dominique Duong – The Dog & The Cat (self-published)

Outstanding Graphic Novel

  • Alex Graham – Dog Biscuits (self-published)
  • Jim Terry – Come Home, Indio (Street Noise Books)
  • Lee Lai – Stone Fruit (Fantagraphics)
  • Sloane Leong – A Map to the Sun (First Second)
  • Nico Harriman – Mr. H: Portrait of a High School Art Teacher (self-published)

Outstanding Minicomic

  • Brendan Leach – Slum Clearance Symphony (Czap Books)
  • Casey Nowak – Bodyseed (Diskette Press)
  • Arantza Peña Popo – Lavender Scare (self-published)
  • Whit Taylor – Montana Diary (Silver Sprocket)
  • Leda Zawacki – The Drain Pipe (self-published)

Outstanding Online Comic

  • Michael DeForge – Birds of Maine
  • Ashanti Fortson – Leaf Lace (Hiveworks)
  • Shing Yin Khor – I Do Not Want to Write Today
  • Susannah Lohr – Shadows Become You
  • Alec Robbins – Mr. Boop

Outstanding Series

  • Ex.Mag (Peow Studios)
  • Malarkey – November Garcia (Birdcage Bottom Books)
  • Ley Lines – ed. by Kevin Czapiewski (Czap Books)
  • Tongues – Anders Nilsen (self-published)
  • A Queer Prisoner’s Anthology IV – ed. by Casper Cendre (ABO)

Outstanding Story

  • Raquelle Jac – Misguided Love from Now #9 (Fantagraphics)
  • Ancco – Nineteen (Drawn & Quarterly)Yeong-shin Ma – Moms (Drawn & Quarterly)
  • Freddy Carrasco – Personal Companion from Ex.Mag #1 (Peow Studios)
  • Stan Stanley – The Hazards of Love (Simon & Schuster)

Promising New Talent

  • Royal Dunlap
  • Nico Harriman
  • Zoe Maeve
  • Pa-Luis
  • Tess Scilipoti

The 2021 Ignatz Award Nominees Revealed

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2021 Ignatz Awards

The Small Press Expo (SPX) has announced the 2021 nominees for the annual presentation of the Ignatz Awards, a celebration of outstanding achievement in comics and cartooning. Presented virtually, SPX 2021 will feature a full slate of programming along with a livestream of the Ignatz Awards ceremony.

The Ignatz Awards are a juried festival prize, the first of such in the United States comic book industry. Traditionally, the winners are determined by attendees of the in-person event. This year, as was the case in 2020, voting is open to all who register to receive a ballot.

Ignatz Awards nominees are determined by a panel of comics professionals. The 2021 Ignatz jurors are Sunmi, Nguyên Khôi Nguyễn, and Daniel Elkin.

The Ignatz Awards ceremony will be live-streamed via the SPX Youtube channel at 8PM on September 18.

BALLOT & VOTING INFORMATION

  • Ballots will be emailed on Thursday, September 2 to everyone on SPX’s email lists.
  • Voting begins Thursday, September 2 and ends on Sunday, September 12 at 11:59 PM (EDT).
  • Check your spam folder if you do not see your ballot.
  • If you requested a ballot in 2020 or are already subscribed to SPX emails, you do not need to sign up again.
  • If you need a ballot, Request one here.
  • New sign-ups will receive a ballot via email within 48-72 hours.

2021 IGNATZ NOMINEES

Outstanding Artist

  • Ashanti Fortson – Leaf Lace (Hiveworks)
  • Lee Lai – Stone Fruit (Fantagraphics)
  • Arantza Peña Popo – Lavender Scare (self-published)
  • Damien Roudeau – Crude (Graphic Mundi)
  • Karl Stevens – Penny (Chronicle)

Outstanding Anthology

  • A Queer Prisoner’s Anthology IV – ed. by Casper Cendre (ABO)
  • Bystander (Kadak Collective)
  • Confined Before Covid: A Pandemic Anthology by LGBTQ Prisoners (ABO)
  • First Wave: Comics from the Early Months of China’s Outbreak – ed. by Xinmei Liu (Paradise Systems)
  • Glaeolia 2 (Glacier Bay Books)

Outstanding Collection

  • Sami Alwani – The Pleasure of the Text (Conundrum Press)
  • Ancco – Nineteen (Drawn & Quarterly)
  • Abby Howard – The Crossroads at Midnight (Iron Circus Comics)
  • Tess Scilipoti – Do You Think I Look Like a Girl? (self-published)
  • Kuniko Tsurita – The Sky is Blue with a Single Cloud (Drawn & Quarterly)

Outstanding Comic

  • EA Bethea – Francis Bacon (Domino Books)
  • Ashanti Fortson – Leaf Lace (Hiveworks)
  • Maddi Gonzalez – Rhapsodie (Fantagraphics)
  • Adam Szym – A Cordial Invitation (Fantagraphics)
  • Dominique Duong – The Dog & The Cat (self-published)

Outstanding Graphic Novel

  • Alex Graham – Dog Biscuits (self-published)
  • Jim Terry – Come Home, Indio (Street Noise Books)
  • Lee Lai – Stone Fruit (Fantagraphics)
  • Sloane Leong – A Map to the Sun (First Second)
  • Nico Harriman – Mr. H: Portrait of a High School Art Teacher (self-published)

Outstanding Minicomic

  • Brendan Leach – Slum Clearance Symphony (Czap Books)
  • Casey Nowak – Bodyseed (Diskette Press)
  • Arantza Peña Popo – Lavender Scare (self-published)
  • Whit Taylor – Montana Diary (Silver Sprocket)
  • Leda Zawacki – The Drain Pipe (self-published)

Outstanding Online Comic

  • Michael DeForge – Birds of Maine
  • Ashanti Fortson – Leaf Lace (Hiveworks)
  • Shing Yin Khor – I Do Not Want to Write Today
  • Susannah Lohr – Shadows Become You
  • Alec Robbins – Mr. Boop

Outstanding Series

  • Ex.Mag (Peow Studios)
  • Malarkey – November Garcia (Birdcage Bottom Books)
  • Ley Lines – ed. by Kevin Czapiewski (Czap Books)
  • Tongues – Anders Nilsen (self-published)
  • A Queer Prisoner’s Anthology IV – ed. by Casper Cendre (ABO)

Outstanding Story

  • Raquelle Jac – Misguided Love from Now #9 (Fantagraphics)
  • Ancco – Nineteen (Drawn & Quarterly)Yeong-shin Ma – Moms (Drawn & Quarterly)
  • Freddy Carrasco – Personal Companion from Ex.Mag #1 (Peow Studios)
  • Stan Stanley – The Hazards of Love (Simon & Schuster)

Promising New Talent

  • Royal Dunlap
  • Nico Harriman
  • Zoe MaevePa-Luis
  • Tess Scilipoti

And the 2020 Ignatz Award Winners Are…

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The 2020 winners for the annual Ignatz Awards have been announced during this year’s virtual Small Press Expo. The Ignatz are a celebration of outstanding achievement in comics and cartooning.

The Ignatz, named after George Herriman’s brick-wielding mouse from his long running comic strip Krazy Kat, recognizes exceptional work that challenges popular notions of what comics can achieve, both as an art form and as a means of personal expression. The Ignatz Awards are a festival prize, the first of such in the United States comic book industry. The 2020 Ignatz Awards are sponsored by Politics & Prose, a D.C. based independent bookstore devoted to cultivating community and strengthening the common good through books, programs, and a respectful exchange of ideas.

The winner for each category is in bold below. Congrats to all of the winners and nominees!

Outstanding Artist

  • Ana Galvañ – Press Enter to Continue
  • Rosemary Valero-O’Connell
  • Tianran Qu – Slices of Life 100 Comic Montage
  • Michael DeForge – Familiar Face
  • Katie Hicks – Guts

Outstanding Anthology

  • Dates III – edited by Zora Gilbert & Cat Parra
  • Be Gay, Do Comics – edited by The Nib
  • LAAB Magazine #4 – edited by Ronald Wimberly & Joshua O’Neill
  • The Anthology of Mind – Tommi Musturi
  • Sweaty Palms Volume 2 – Sage Coffey

Outstanding Collection

  • GLEEM – Eddy Carrasco
  • Glenn Ganges in: The River at Night – Kevin Huizenga
  • Inappropriate – Gabrielle Bell
  • Slices of Life: 100 Comic Montage – Tianran Qu
  • The Complete Works of Fante Bukowski – Noah Van Sciver

Outstanding Comic

  • Cosmoknights – Hannah Templer
  • My Dog Ivy – Gabrielle Bell
  • Cry Wolf Girl – Ariel Ries
  • Theth Tomorrow Forever – Josh Bayer
  • Mooncakes – Wendy Xu & Suzanne Walker

Outstanding Graphic Novel

  • Hot Comb – Ebony Flowers
  • Pittsburgh – Frank Santoro
  • Skip – Molly Mendoza
  • How I Tried to be a Good Person – Ulli Lust
  • This Was Our Pact – Ryan Andrews

Outstanding Minicomic

  • The Gulf – Nguyen Nguyen
  • Chapter Two – Keren Katz
  • Canvas – Theo K. Stultz
  • I Feel Weird #4 – Haleigh Buck
  • Black Hole Heart – Cathy G Johnson

Outstanding Online Comic

  • I Exist – Breena Nuñez
  • Like the Tide – Isabella Rotman
  • SUPERPOSE – Joe Seosamh & C. Anka
  • Gabby Schulz (@gabbyschulz)
  • Witchy – Ariel Ries

Outstanding Series

  • The Misplaced – Chris Callahan
  • Fizzle – Whit Taylor
  • SUPERPOSE – Joe Seosamh & C. Anka
  • kuš! – kuš! komiks
  • Frontier – Youth in Decline

Outstanding Story

  • The Lab – Allison Conway
  • The Hard Tomorrow – Eleanor Davis
  • The Weight #9 – Melissa Mendes
  • “Little Red Riding Hood” – Inappropriate – Gabrielle Bell
  • BTTM FDRS – Ezra Daniels & Ben Passmore

Promising New Talent

  • AJ Dungo
  • Sylvia Nickerson
  • Theo Stultz
  • Emil Wilson
  • Andrew Lorenzi

You can watch the ceremony below:

Comics Deserve Better Episode 8: Fearscape by Ryan O’Sullivan, Andrea Mutti, Vladmir Popov, and Andworld Design

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Brian, Darci, and Logan court controversy yet again by discussing the news about the Keanu Reeves/BOOM! Studios KickStarter BRZKR as well as the announcement of the 4 Kids Walk Into the Bank film and the 2020 Ignatz Awards. But the main event of the episode is a discussion of Ryan O’Sullivan and Andrea Mutti‘s Vault Comics fantasy series Fearscape. Two of our hosts liked this book, but one was definitely drinking the haterade. You’ll have to listen to the episode to find out who’s who. Finally, other comics mentioned in this episode include Tartarus, Akagami no Shirayukihime, Grendel Kentucky, Ice Cream Man Presents: Quarantine Comix, Seance Tea Party, and Powers: The Best Ever. (Episode art by Andrea Mutti)

Small Press Expo Begins to Announce Its Virtual Panels

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Small Press Expo

With the Small Press Expo canceled this year, the convention is going virtual. Along with a virtual Ignatz Awards, the beloved convention will have a full slate of programming to go with it.

Some of the panels have already been announced which you can see below and check out here for the full schedule. New panels are being revealed daily. Panels can be viewed on the SPX Youtube page during their times.

September 12

PARENTING AND ART IN A TIME OF CRISIS
September 12, 2020 11:00 am – 11:50 am

Balancing parenting with creating art can be difficult under the best of circumstances. In a time when parents also have to cope with a global pandemic, economic turmoil, injustice and oppression, and naked racism, how are cartoonists who are parents coping with this? How is it affecting not only their output, but the content of their work? Moderator Rob Clough (High-Low, SOLRAD) will discuss these questions and more with Keiler Roberts (Chlorine Gardens), Tyler Cohen (Primahood: Magenta), Whit Taylor (Fizzle, The Nib), and Luke Howard (Our Mother).

DISKETTE PRESS: ANN ARBOR TRANS PRINTING CLUB
September 12, 2020 1:30pm – 2:20 pm

Take a tour and listen to the behind-the-scenes workings of Ann Arbor’s Diskette Press! Publisher Carta Monir will lead a discussion with two of the artists she publishes, Emma Jayne (Trans Girls Hit The Town) and Casey Nowak (Girl Town, Duh Ha Ha). Diskette’s ace employee and Risograph tech whiz Renée Cymry will also provide details on the nuts and bolts of running a self-contained publishing house.

RED, WHITE, BLACK, & BLUE: HIGHLIGHTING AMERICA’S RACIAL ILLITERACY
September 12, 20202 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm

Combining comics, storytelling, statistics, and facts, Knight makes the case that America’s biggest problem is its inability to have a frank and honest discussion about race.

Knight’s presentation is designed to provoke constructive dialogue amongst people young and old, left and right, of all colors and orientations.  The presentation has been a hit at schools, churches, and workplaces across the United States and beyond.

Keith will also be answering questions about Woke, the new Hulu series inspired by Knight’s life and comics. All episodes of the first season drop 9/9/20.

THE FUTURE WITHOUT YOU
September 12, 2020 6:45 pm – 8:00 pm

A seamless tapestry of comics, radio play, and live theatrical performance, The Future Without You is a collection of six short pieces from Tulsa Artist Fellow and Ignatz-award winning comics creator Sophie Goldstein and Tulsa Artist Fellow Carl Antonowicz, starring actors Kara Bellavia and Javier Sagel. Moderator Rob Clough will have a brief discussion with Goldstein and Antonowicz after the performance airs.

September 13

COMICS AND CONTRACTS
September 13, 2020 11:00 am – 11:50 am

One thing lacking in many art school curriculums is how to approach signing a book contract. What considerations should an artist consider in negotiating a contract? How do factors like copyrights, media rights, licensing, reversion rights figure into a contract? Join moderator Rob Clough and the interim Executive Director of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, Jeff Trexler, as they answer these and other frequently asked questions. Trexler will also discuss how he sees the CBLDF providing resources for these issues in the future.

HOW DRAWINGS RESONATE: EMPATHY AND IDENTITY IN GRAPHIC MEMOIR
September 13, 2020  12:15 pm – 1:05 am

Cartoonists GB Tran (Vietnamerica) and Erin Williams (Commute) join this roundtable with moderator Qiana Whitted and other scholars from the International Comic Arts Forum (ICAF) to discuss the ways that audience, reception, and “relatability” affect how comics are created, particularly those by women and people of color. How do these artists render hidden on painful experiences on the page in a manner that resonates with readers, while also realizing their own vision for the stories they want to tell? Co-sponsored by the International Comic Arts Forum

THE BODY LAID WASTE: THE NEW BODY HORROR IN COMICS
September 13, 2020 1:30 pm – 2:20 pm

While comics have always provided a space for the provocative modification of the human body, in recent years cartoonists have returned to the horror genre to twist it with their new visions of terrifying human figures. Grounding their approach to horror in the body itself, these artists excavate intimacy, desire, fantasy, and community care as they explore the human body in all its wonder and grotesqueness. At the intersection of the body, horror, and comics, they conjure alien lifeforms, create impossible anatomies, and pillage historical plagues and contemporary blights, all the while transforming the language of comics and pushing towards new heights of horror storytelling. Join moderator Dr. Rachel Miller as she explores these ideas with Kate Lacour (Vivisectionary), Ezra Claytan Daniels (Upgrade Soul, BTTM FDRS), Julia Gfrörer (Vision), and Sloane Leong (Prism Stalker).

SO GOTH SHE WAS BORN BLACK: A SPOTLIGHT ON BIANCA XUNISE
September 13, 2020 3:00 pm – 3:50 pm

Moderator J.A. Micheline will engage in conversation with Ignatz-award winning cartoonist Bianca Xunise (Six Chix, Say Her Name) about punk rock, goth, and her comics career.

The Small Press Expo Announces the 2020 Ignatz Award Nominees

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The Small Press Expo (SPX) has announced the 2020 nominees for the annual presentation of the Ignatz Awards, a celebration of outstanding achievement in comics and cartooning.

The Ignatz, named after George Herriman’s brick-wielding mouse from his long running comic strip Krazy Kat, recognizes exceptional work that challenges popular notions of what comics can achieve, both as an art form and as a means of personal expression. The Ignatz Awards are a festival prize, the first of such in the United States comic book industry. The 2020 Ignatz Awards are sponsored by Politics & Prose, a D.C. based independent bookstore devoted to cultivating community and strengthening the common good through books, programs, and a respectful exchange of ideas.

The nominees for the ballot were determined by a panel of the best of today’s comics professionals, Scott Cederlund, November Garcia, Malala Gharib, and Rosemary Valero-O’Connell. Voting beings August 31 and continues until September 9. Register to vote via the SPX website. Everyone registering to vote after the initial ballots are mailed on August 31 will be emailed ballots soon after registration.

Outstanding Artist

  • Ana Galvañ – Press Enter to Continue
  • Rosemary Valero-O’Connell
  • Tianran Qu – Slices of Life 100 Comic Montage
  • Michael DeForge – Familiar Face
  • Katie Hicks – Guts

Outstanding Anthology

  • Dates III – edited by Zora Gilbert & Cat Parra
  • Be Gay, Do Comics – edited by The Nib
  • LAAB Magazine #4 – edited by Ronald Wimberly & Joshua O’Neill
  • The Anthology of Mind – Tommi Musturi
  • Sweaty Palms Volume 2 – Sage Coffey

Outstanding Collection

  • GLEEM – Eddy Carrasco
  • Glenn Ganges in: The River at Night – Kevin Huizenga
  • Inappropriate – Gabrielle Bell
  • Slices of Life: 100 Comic Montage – Tianran Qu
  • The Complete Works of Fante Bukowski – Noah Van Sciver

Outstanding Comic

  • Cosmoknights – Hannah Templer
  • My Dog Ivy – Gabrielle Bell
  • Cry Wolf Girl – Ariel Ries
  • Theth Tomorrow Forever – Josh Bayer
  • Mooncakes – Wendy Xu & Suzanne Walker

Outstanding Graphic Novel

  • Hot Comb – Ebony Flowers
  • Pittsburgh – Frank Santoro
  • Skip – Molly Mendoza
  • How I Tried to be a Good Person – Ulli Lust
  • This Was Our Pact – Ryan Andrews

Outstanding Minicomic

  • The Gulf – Nguyen Nguyen
  • Chapter Two – Keren Katz
  • Canvas – Theo K. Stultz
  • I Feel Weird #4 – Haleigh Buck
  • Black Hole Heart – Cathy G Johnson

Outstanding Online Comic

  • I Exist – Breena Nuñez
  • Like the Tide – Isabella Rotman
  • SUPERPOSE – Joe Seosamh & C. Anka
  • Gabby Schulz (@gabbyschulz)
  • Witchy – Ariel Ries

Outstanding Series

  • The Misplaced – Chris Callahan
  • Fizzle – Whit Taylor
  • SUPERPOSE – Joe Seosamh & C. Anka
  • kuš! – kuš! komiks
  • Frontier – Youth in Decline

Outstanding Story

  • The Lab – Allison Conway
  • The Hard Tomorrow – Eleanor Davis
  • The Weight #9 – Melissa Mendes
  • “Little Red Riding Hood” – Inappropriate – Gabrielle Bell
  • BTTM FDRS – Ezra Daniels & Ben Passmore

Promising New Talent

  • AJ Dungo
  • Sylvia Nickerson
  • Theo Stultz
  • Emil Wilson
  • Andrew Lorenzi

Small Press Expo Wants You to Register to Vote… for the Virtual 2020 Ignatz Awards

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Ignatz 2020 logo design by Ebony Flowers
Ignatz 2020 logo design by Ebony Flowers

Small Press Expo’s 2020 Ignatz Awards, recognizing this year’s outstanding achievements in comics by small press creators, will be held online for the first time. In past years the Ignatz Awards have been a festival prize to be voted on only by attendees of the show, this year’s virtual event will open voting to all who have registered. 
Please register to vote by following this link.

Key dates for the 2020 Ignatz Awards

August 11 – Voter registration begins
August 26 – Announcement of Ignatz 2020 Nominees
August 28 – Voting begins with ballots emailed to all registered voters
September 4 – Voter registration ends
September 5 – Voting for the 2020 Ignatz Awards end
September 12 – Online Presentation of Ignatz Award winners

Everyone registering to vote after the initial ballots are mailed on August 28 will be emailed ballots soon after registration.

The Ignatz Awards ceremony will be live-streamed on Saturday night, September 12 at 8PM Eastern Time over the SPX Youtube channel.

SPX 2020 Has Been Canceled, Ignatz Awards Go Virtual

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SPX

SPX 2020, originally scheduled for September 12 – 13 at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center, will be canceled due to the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak. SPX will not have any in-person exhibitors room, programming, or Ignatz Awards ceremony.

The 2020 Ignatz Awards ceremony will be live-streamed on Saturday night, September 12, exact time TBD. The late-August timeframe will be the target date for the announcement of the details for the virtual awards ceremony.

Over the next few weeks, Small Press Expo will be developing both the process and platform as to how Ignatz voting will be held, with a target of mid-late July to announce the details to the SPX community on voting for this year’s nominees.

Due to the disruptions of the pandemic, the Ignatz submission timeframe has been extended to June 19.
Here is the information to submit works for the Ignatz 2020 Awards.

Small Press Expo is looking into holding some programming over the weekend of September 12, with a decision on this aspect of the show to come sometime this Summer.

Online Resources for the SPX Community

Part of the Small Press Expo’s mission is to help, as best they can, the SPX Community in uncertain times such as these. To that end, SPX has identified some online resources that contain information about various grants, relief funds, and other mechanisms to hopefully aid the SPX Community in weathering the current circumstances:

Ignatz-nominated series Heavenly Blues gets a digital release from Scout Comics and Illicit Press

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In celebration of Heavenly Blues’ nomination for “Outstanding Series” at the upcoming Ignatz Awards, the acclaimed series will be available for the first time on digital comics leader comiXology. Illicit Press is partnering with original publisher Scout Comics to bring the series to its widest audience yet.

Reuniting writer Ben Kahn and artist Bruno Hidalgo, the creative team behind Shaman and Gryffen: Galaxy’s Most Wanted, Heavenly Blues introduces readers to Hell’s greatest thieves, as they plan eternity’s greatest heist—against the angels of Heaven itself! To pull it off, Depression-era gun runner Isaiah Jefferson and accused Salem witch Erin Foley enlist a crew of outlaws from across time, including an Old West bank robber, a samurai addicted to a drug that provides a glimpse of the living world, and an Ancient Egyptian tomb raider. Together, they must evade the forces of both realms as they seek the afterlife’s greatest prize!

By turns thrilling, poignant, and darkly funny, Heavenly Blues was a critical darling upon its print serialization and has been optioned for film. The new digital editions re-present the six-issue series in its entirety, complete with Hidalgo’s breathtaking covers, just in time for the Ignatz Awards at 2019’s Small Press Expo. If attending the convention, you can vote for the series.

Issues #1 & #2 release September 11
Issues #3 & #4 release September 18
Issues #5 & #6 release September 25

Issue #1 will be offered at 99¢ for a 27-page issue. Subsequent issues will be offered at $1.99.

Heavenly Blues #1

Small Press Expo Announces the 2019 Ignatz Award Nominees

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Ignatz Award 2019 logo

The Small Press Expo (SPX) has announced the 2019 nominees for the annual presentation of the Ignatz Awards, a celebration of outstanding achievement in comics and cartooning. 

The Ignatz, named after George Herriman’s brick-wielding mouse from his long running comic strip Krazy Kat, recognizes exceptional work that challenges popular notions of what comics can achieve, both as an art form and as a means of personal expression. The Ignatz Awards are a festival prize, the first of such in the United States comic book industry.

The nominees for the ballot were determined by a panel of five of the best of today comics professionals, MK Czerwiec, Kelly Froh, Chris Kindred, Nola Pfau, and Rob McMonigal.

The Ignatz Awards will be presented at the gala Ignatz Awards ceremony held on Saturday, September 14, 2019 at 9:30 P.M.

This year’s Ignatz logo is by 2018 Promising New Talent winner, Iasmin Omar Ata.

Kickstarter is sponsoring the 2019 Ignatz Awards. Their sponsorship will go towards ballot printing, manufacture of the awards, room & A/V costs for the ceremony and the Ignatz After Party.

Congrats to this year’s nominees! Find the full list below.

Outstanding Artist

  • Rosemary Valero-O’Connell – Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me (First Second)
  • Koren Shadmi – Highwayman (Top Shelf Productions)
  • Lucy Knisley – Kid Gloves (First Second)
  • Sloane Leong – Prism Stalker (Image Comics)
  • Ezra Claytan Daniels – Upgrade Soul (Lion Forge)

Outstanding Collection

  • Love Letters to Jane’s World – Paige Braddock (Lion Forge)
  • Girl Town – Carolyn Nowak (Top Shelf Productions)
  • Dirty Plotte – Julie Doucet (Drawn & Quarterly)
  • Leaving Richard’s Valley – Michael DeForge (Drawn & Quarterly)
  • This Woman’s Work – Julie Delporte (Drawn & Quarterly)

Outstanding Anthology

  • Electrum – Edited by Der-shing Helmer (Alloy)
  • Wayward Sisters – Edited by Allison O’Toole (TO Comix Press)
  • Family – The Nib Magazine – Edited by Matt Bors, Matt Lubchanksy and Eleri Harris (The Nib)
  • Death – The Nib Magazine – Edited by Matt Bors, Matt Lubchanksy and Eleri Harris (The Nib)
  • We’re Still Here: An All-Trans Comics Anthology – Edited by Tara Avery and Jeanne Thornton (Stacked Deck Press)

Outstanding Graphic Novel

  • Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me – Mariko Tamaki & Rosemary Valero-O’Connell (First Second)
  • Upgrade Soul – Ezra Clayton Daniels (Lion Forge)
  • Woman World – Aminder Dhaliwal (Drawn & Quarterly)
  • Highwayman – Koren Shadmi (Top Shelf Productions)
  • Gender Queer – Maia Kobabe (Lion Forge)

Outstanding Series

  • The Nib Magazine – Matt Bors (The Nib)
  • Daygloayhole Quarterly – Ben Passmore (Silver Sprocket Press)
  • Heavenly Blues – Ben Kahn/Bruno Hidalgo (Scout Comics)
  • Frontier – Youth in Decline
  • Endgames – Ru Xu (NewsPrints)

Outstanding Minicomic

  • Trans Girls Hit the Town – Emma Jayne (Diskette Press)
  • Gonzalo – Jed McGowan (Shortbox)
  • Silver Wire – Kriota Willberg (Birdcage Bottom Books)
  • Cherry – Inés Estrada (Kilgore Books & Comics)
  • YLLW YLLW YLLW – Mar Julia (Diskette Press)

Outstanding Comic

  • Lorna – Benji Nate (Self-Published)
  • Infinite Wheat Paste #7 – Pidge (Pidge Comics)
  • The Saga of Metalbeard – Joshua Paddon & Matthew Hoddy (Self-Published)
  • Egg Cream – Liz Suburbia (Silver Sprocket & Czap Books)
  • Check Please! – Ngozi Ukazu (First Second)

Outstanding Online Comic

  • Isle of Elsi – Alec Longstreth
  • That’s Not My Name! – Hannako Lambert
  • What Doctors Know About CPR – Nathan Gray
  • About Face – Nate Powell
  • Full Court Crush – Hannah Blumenreich

Promising New Talent

  • Haleigh Buck
  • Ebony Flowers
  • Emma Jayne
  • Mar Julia
  • Kelsey Wroten

Outstanding Story

  • Sacred Heart Vol 2 Part 1: Livin’ in the Future – Liz Suburbia (from Egg Cream #1) (Czap Books)
  • Sincerely, Harriet – Sarah Winifred Searle (Graphic Universe)
  • Woman World – Aminder Dhaliwal (Drawn & Quarterly)
  • The Dead Eye and the Deep Blue Sea – Vannak Anan Prum (Seven Stories Press)
  • Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me – Mariko Tamaki & Rosemary Valero-O’Connell (First Second)
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